Okay! Rightio. Alright. Cool. Hold up. Right. Okay. I HAVE THOUGHTS!
As a young student with no job and A Family Situation, I did claim a free community copy (thank you for that!). On that same train of thought, I ask thee this! Will those of us who downloaded the game in the investigation phase be able to play the resolution phase with no further purchases? Sorry if you've already answered this before.
Okay, now onto the game. First off- I loved the OST. Like. It was AMAZING. Is there a way I can get it? It was so atmospheric, enough that it doesn't overtake the actual scene and rather focuses on providing the player with background noise. And it was also very pretty.
Plot and Worldbuilding- holy mcheckin shit goddamn you guys. It's such a cool world! It's like, you've got Gifts, and it's so cool, and you can see with colours (which I'll touch on later), and you got the forces, and the environment, and literal maps!! And! The plot! Is SO GOOD. Because you can tell you've got some things put together, but you can't lock those in until you've got all of em (Which again, I will touch on that later!). And. The writing. Sound design. the rain. (starts sobbing) /pos
Character design- I'm a visual media student, and this is. So cool to me. Let us start with the hobo guy. NGL, he seems like a main character. or, like a narrator. love it, esp because of the 'i am homeless hello yes' thing.
Nomnom's design; from the reference picture, you can already tell that nomnom is the more thinkative one, who plans what happens (and goddamn I was so right about that). They're so gender. And the art is so pretty.
Cannelé's design: Red is often associated with anger, or passion, and holy goddamn you got that on POINT. Cannelé is wildly fiery, impulsive, yet a quick thinker. Also love the little lineart colours. Awesome yes yes.
Mech (claps) An (claps) Ics. MECHANICS. HOOOOOOOOLY. Holy. Just. Wow. The scoreboard! So cool! The investigation board! The card game!! Awesome!
How long did it take to get the pull-string board down thing w motion? look at it go, it's just weaving around. love it.
Oh, also! Thank you. So much. For adding the 'speed events' option. That is so important to me. It means I can, like, enjoy the story as it goes along with a choice to be speed or not. Much thank.
I love the way the notes go zoom- I loved that so much, and the sounds. So good.
Subtle Touches and design elements: I knew when I saw the colours that there Was Something Up. I love the connections you made, and the way you utilised colour and POVs from said colour. From the get-go, you see very formed colour-roles from the dynamic duo (tm). And the glowy thing. SO cool.
Also the bolded stuff. Like. clues and things. with emphasis. contrast. visual media. very smort.
Questions:
- Pronouns? Hello? They keep changing and at this point I'm so intrigued but also very confused. (Thank you for adding some diversity <3333)
- Can we have pictures of Philbert? Please? I love him.
- Is there any way I can submit theories that isn't a game mechanic?
Feedback:
Right, so a couple qualms. One of which is my ADHD brain remembers jackshit. So, maybe like, a log of what's been said? (Like, I know ren'py has an inbuilt function, but I gathered very quickly y'all aren't using renpy).
in that same realm, mayhaps holding down an enter button fast-forwards things? i am aware it's not ideal if you're trying to savour the plot, but maybe you can use some sorta mechanic that allows you to not skip the text the first time you see it
Uh.. what else. Enlarge the evidence board. please. I beg of you. thanks
Words for the devs: y'all keep doing your thing. it's amazing. thank you. hydrate or diedrate btw :)
camille get sleep challenge real?
Suggestions:
- If it's at all possible, maybe make more saves? I got lost a couple times w trying to redo certain choices.
- Was a little confused as to the master volume- usually that implies that they have a sound effects volume and a music volume, but that's also cool if not.
- Colour-coding some notes/leads to make it easier to connect to, a lá Outer Wilds. Also with the boards, a way of organising it easier? Maybe a button from a lead which snaps all the ties you made to it?
- With the evidence board locks, how it shows the little, uh, unlocking cutscene but glows red when it's not correct? I'd like a way of maybe help with that- maybe one of them flashes green with the one you got right that's connected? Or it shows (x) amount of green dots instead of red as per what you got wrong/right?
- a control that allows you to quit the game /lh
- (Maybe only if the player tries for like, a long time, you could add a little mechanic like that if possible [keep in mind I have no clue what engine/language you're codin' this in, so I have no idea what possibilities there are].)
Stuff while I was playing that I said:
- "WHY AM I BLUE" (a couple seconds later) "called it"
- [insert panicking about the score system here]
- "why do i have a feeling this is a meganic"
- "that will be used"
- (yes, i said meganic)
- (When seeing Laeftitia) OUI OUI MON AMI J'MAPELLE LAFFEYETTE!
- 'i hate gambling.'
- WHAT
- 'okay so either option i chose i was gonna be laughed at. i'm chill w this'
Okay! Hope this is enough feedback for someone who got a free copy! Wish I could support ya more, but in the meantime, take this review, hope it helps :D
(Also sorry for the long-ass comment, I had a lot to say haha.)
(Edit; Also a typo, not sure if they're intentional, but 'They look like they're used toing do this..' and I'm decently sure this is a design choice but there's a purple cursor after Fleur d'Âme in the first chapter! :)